Monthly Archives: February 2015

CompTIA and Cisco aren’t the only certification providers to revamp their exam offerings. Recently, Juniper Networks has announced some changes, too. In just 2 weeks, on March 15, the Junos Security Troubleshooting exam, JNO-690, will be replaced by the new version: JNO-691. The old exam, JNO-690, will be fully phased out later this spring, on April 30.

Juniper exam JNO-691, Junos Troubleshooting leads to the Juniper Networks Certified Support Professional (JNCSP-SEC) certification. The Juniper exam JNO-691 is a 90-minute written exam containing 65 multiple-choice questions (the current version, the 690, consists of 70 questions), so that’s 5 less queries to find a proper key. According to Juniper, the JNO-691 exam is designed for experienced networking support professionals with intermediate knowledge of the Junos OS.

Juniper has significantly updated the exam objectives (they’re available here below), so if you’ve been studying for the old exam, you need to register and pass the exam before it’s phased out on April 30. To be eligible for the exam, candidates need to hold the JNCIP-ENT credential.

Designed for experienced networking support professionals with intermediate knowledge of the Junos Operating System, this written exam verifies the candidate’s understanding of how to troubleshoot general issues related to Junos devices.

Junos Troubleshooting exam topics are based on the content of the recommended instructor led training courses, as well as the additional resources.

The Junos Troubleshooting exam is the first of two exams required to achieve JNCSP-ENT certification.

Detailed Exam Objectives include:

Troubleshooting Methodology

Chassis Monitoring and Troubleshooting

Control Plane Monitoring and Troubleshooting

Data Plane Monitoring and Troubleshooting

Layer 2 and Layer 3 Protocol Monitoring and Troubleshooting

High Availability (HA) Monitoring and Troubleshooting

These are the first and only updates on the Juniper’s new exam available at the moment. Stay tuned for more.

This year, Cisco streamlines its offering of CCNA and CCNP certifications. As convergence of technology and areas of expertise for IT professionals has become one of the biggest trends in the recent years, it didn’t make much sense to keep the voice and video as separate domains in terms of Cisco professional certifications. Since Cisco already had a highly reputable CCIE Collaboration certification, it was only a matter of time until Cisco decided to roll CCNA Video and CCNA Voice into one comprehensive credential: CCNA Collaboration. After all, what’s one without the other these days, right?

The same happens with CCNP Voice and CCNP Video – they become CCNP Collaboration. That’s right! CCNA Voice and CCNA Video certifications will be retired in August this year, and the new CCNA Collaboration is already available, with the first candidates already having taken the exam. More information about CCNP Collaboration is coming soon (April 2015, according to Cisco). Overall, the new Cisco collaboration certification strategy targets engineers who implement, configure, deploy and troubleshoot collaboration and communication infrastructures.

210-065 CIVND exam queries cover knowledge and skills to implement various Cisco Video endpoints in converged Cisco video infrastructures. It also tests your ability to implement and troubleshoot Cisco Unified Communication and Collaboration, TelePresence, and Digital Media Player in different Cisco business video solution architectures.

Video Concepts – 21%

Endpoint Configuration – 32%

Troubleshooting and Support – 31%

Conferencing Concepts – 16%

Both 210-060 and 210-062 exams take 75 minutes each and contain up to 65 queries. Although these exams have been around for a while, apparently they have been enhanced to contain some concepts previously covered by CCNA Voice and CCNA Video certifications.

CCNP Collaboration Exams (Further details will be announced in April 2015):

300-070 CIPTV1 Implementing Cisco IP Telephony and Video, Part 1

300-075 CIPTV2 Implementing Cisco IP Telephony and Video, Part 2

300-080 CTCOLLAB Troubleshooting Cisco IP Telephony and Video

300-085 CAPPS Implementing Cisco Collaboration Applications

Stay tuned for more updates about Cisco’s new Collaboration strategy and other Cisco news!

Are you planning to take CompTIA’s Advanced Security Practitioner (CASP) exam this year? Then you should be preparing for the new CASP since CompTIA has recently announced the updates to this exam. The new version of CASP exam has the CS-002 code. The old exam CAS-001 will retire on June 20, 2015. Although it may seem like you still have time, we recommend that you switch to preparing for the new exam.

For those of our readers who are new to CompTIA certification program, CASP is an advanced level exam that validates candidates’ full competency and skills in IT security. According to CompTIA, the new version of the exam addresses the latest enterprise-level cybersecurity threats. The exam ensures that the new CASP credential holders can effectively combat the growing threat of malware coming from individual hackers and well as from organized hacking groups. The new CASP version also covers the troubleshooting processes security professionals rely on to keep data, devices and networks secure.

Needless to say that while the old CASP exam wasn’t a piece of cake, the new one will be even more challenging. “Each hack is unique,” noted James Stanger, senior director, product development, CompTIA. ”It takes technical knowledge and creativity to combat these threats. These advanced skills are assessed in the CASP exam.”
The CASP certification exam validates competency in enterprise security; risk management; incident response; research and analysis; integration of computing, communications and business disciplines; and technical integration of enterprise components.

CASP exam targets IT professionals with at least 10 years’ experience in IT administration and five years hands-on technical security experience in job roles such as information security analyst, security architect, cybersecurity risk manager and cybersecurity risk analyst. The CompTIA Advanced Security Practitioner (CASP) exam is an internationally targeted validation of advanced level security skills and knowledge. While there is no formal prerequisite, the CASP certification is intended to follow CompTIA Security+ or equivalent experience and has a technical, hands-on focus at the enterprise level.

As Quality Assurance is essential to many IT operations and processes, there is little wonder that it’s quickly developing in a complex self-sufficient area. Today’s understanding of the QA process involves review of products and processes (before they’re released to the public) using an array of specialized tools, processes and their coordination.

Although there is a variety of QA tools and platforms available and the choice depends on the priorities, needs and processes of your organization, HP’s solutions like HP Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) and HP Unified Functional Testing (UFL) are popular with organizations and their QA professionals worldwide. Recently, HP has introduced 2 certifications to validate the skills using these tools. HP ATP: Application Lifecycle Management v12 addresses using HP’s ALM platform to support QA, while HP ATP: Unified Functional Testing v12 supplies training to those engaged in preparing and executing automated test cases.

Let’s take a close look at these credentials.

HP ATP: Application Lifecycle Management v12

This certification verifies that you can deploy, demonstrate, use, and manage the HP ALM platform to support all phases of the quality and test-management process when working as a QA team member or under the supervision of a senior consultant. It validates your ability to do the following:

Create releases and release cycles

Manage requirements and analyze associated risks

Create and organize test cases and test sets

Execute manual and automated tests

Record and track test execution results and defects

Configure and use version control, libraries, and baselines

Generate reports and graphs and use the Dashboard

Work with project planning and tracking (PPT) graphs and reports

Use the business process models

Plan for ALM implementation

Create and manage domains, projects, and templates

Plan project groups, users, and permissions

Determine entity customizations

Implement basic workflows

Identify and use ALM integrations and extensions, including ALI and the ALM synchronizer

Why earn this certification?

This certification qualifies you as a recognized QA consultant.

Certification enables you to become a valuable contributor to your software development team.

Certification lays the foundation for your career in IT as a QA engineer or ALM administrator.

Certification prepares you for innovative technologies, methodologies, and approaches that are rapidly transforming the QA landscape and practices (e.g., agile, testing in the cloud, mobile testing, testing as a service).